Weekend Notes

A weekend with some big sporting events to discuss.

Hibachi

I did some Good Dad stuff to start the weekend. L’s favorite restaurant is a hibachi place near us. Since I got a Blackstone grill last year I’ve made a far-less-elaborate home version a couple times. She had bragged about my skills to her friends and requested that I cook up a meal for her crew.

Not everyone was able to make it but I did cook for a total of 10 people Friday night. It turned out pretty good, or at least all the girls complimented me. It was A LOT of food and I didn’t quite have the timing down right. Plus my propane tank went empty in the middle and I had to do a quick swap in the midst of finishing the steak.

CL Final

Saturday was the UEFA Champions League final in Budapest. I can’t call myself a true Arsenal fan – my goal last fall was to watch more of their games without much success – but rather a follower. I literally follow a few Arsenal fan accounts, follow their scores, follow their news, without the full investment that comes with being a proper fan. It was cool they won their first Premier League title in 20 years this season, but I watched the tiniest fraction of those games.

I was definitely pulling for them to prevail Saturday. And things looked pretty good when they took the lead over favored Paris Saint-Germain just six minutes into the game.

It was a strange contest from that point. PSG dominated possession, holding the ball over 70% of the time, but the Arsenal defense was so stout that the high-flying French team could not create chances.

An Arsenal penalty (deserved) allowed PSG to tie the game midway through the second half, but the remainder of regular time, and extra time, was the same. PSG passing the ball around with no idea what to do while Arsenal created the occasional counter attack. In fact, PSG seemed to pretty much give up in extra time, hoping to get to penalty kicks. Arsenal had one last corner kick opportunity in the closing seconds but could not break the tie.

PKs. The worst way to determine a champion.

Two Arsenal players got too cute and missed, PSG had just one of theirs saved. The trophy went back to Paris and Arsenal were denied their first-ever Champions League title.

If I’m only the most casual of Arsenal fans, why am I sharing all this? Well…

Travels

…because M was in Paris for the weekend. And watched the game at a restaurant in the city, surrounded by PSG fans. She sent us a video of people celebrating when PSG tied the game. She said the place went bonkers when PSG won, everyone throwing drinks about. Her group escaped dryly but a table next to them was thoroughly drenched in the deluge.

Later she FaceTimed us from under the Eiffel Tower which was lit up in PSG colors for the night. The large Saturday evening crowds were heavier than normal and you could see/hear fireworks being shot in celebration. She timed her trip well!

Sounds like the rest of her weekend was successful and she made it back to Nantes safely last night.

The heat in France has finally broken. Her AirBNB does not have air conditioning so she and her roommates roasted all last week. She said only a few of their classrooms have AC, too, and after making the Americans sweat for a day, they moved them into the cooled rooms the remainder of the week. Privilege much? She said the tram they take to and from school was rather stinky at the end of the day, too. We reminded her that she could be home working like most of her friends.

Next weekend she’s off to Lisbon.

Western Conf Finals

What an ending to the WCF! Despite knowing that San Antonio was absolutely capable of pulling off the win, it was still stunning when it happened late Saturday. Perhaps most stunning because they controlled almost the entire game in Oklahoma City. SGA was amazing through about 44 minutes, yet he looked completely spent and unable to do anything in the closing minutes. How often have you seen a 27-year-old, 2-time MVP look wrecked in a situation like that? The Thunder were throwing bad passes and shooting airballs, while the Spurs were getting steals and seemingly every rebound while making huge shot after huge shot. Basically the Thunder played like the inexperienced team and the Spurs played like the defending champs.

I don’t think OKC should feel too bad about the result. They barely had Jalen Williams in the series and lost Ajay Mitchell during it. Chet Holmgren was terrible, like so bad you question everything about his game. Credit for that goes to the Spurs for getting so deeply in his head he couldn’t catch a pass Saturday night. Meanwhile the Spurs injured players got more healthy as the series went on.

Fully healthy, I bet OKC wins game seven. But you never know, Victor Wembanyama is a force like we’ve never seen in the NBA in our lifetimes and may just be good enough to have overcome anything the Thunder threw at him.

And now I can watch the NBA Finals because it won’t be two teams I dislike.

KU Baseball

The dream run continues for KU baseball. They swept through their regional over the weekend, beating Northeastern and then Arkansas twice to advance. I watched parts of Sunday night’s game. Not the best parts, as I missed KU scoring 11 unanswered runs to erase an early Arkansas lead. Each time I turned it on the Razorbacks would score so I kept switching to other things. I follow the final inning on the ESPN app rather than watching it so I didn’t jinx them.

I don’t really understand how college baseball works but I think if Georgia Tech wins tonight, KU will travel to Atlanta for the Super Regional. If Oklahoma wins the Sooners will go to Lawrence. But I honestly have not paid a ton of attention to college baseball in my life so I could be totally wrong.

Also Super Regionals is a dumb name.

Anyway, Rock Chalk, bitches.